June, 2019

• 16 June

  Your iPhone is already made in America, not China

  

  It wouldn’t take much for Apple Inc. to have US-sold iPhones made outside China. Foxconn Technology Group, the primary assembler of the devices, said that it has enough capacity to make all iPhones bound for the US outside of China if necessary. Apple hasn’t given the Taiwanese company such instructions, a senior executive of Foxconn’s listed flagship Hon Hai Precision ...

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• 16 June

  Foreigners bolster Saudi stocks as tension in region mounts

  

  Bloomberg Rising tensions in the Gulf region aren’t stopping foreign investors from supporting Saudi Arabian stocks, just four years after funds from abroad were first allowed to trade directly in Riyadh. International funds helped contain losses in the final trading session last week, when Gulf stocks were sold off amid escalating tensions in the region. Qualified foreign funds have been ...

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• 16 June

  Hong Kong liquidity tightens as markets fall

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s short-term borrowing costs haven’t been this high for a decade, and the impact is starting to show on the city’s financial markets. The tightness has weighed on demand for stocks at a time when street clashes have undercut sentiment towards the city’s assets. A gauge of Hong Kong property companies tumbled the most in five months as ...

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• 16 June

  Equity bulls retain footing in tumultuous week

  Bloomberg When it’s all done, when the bulls have been broken, historians will look back and have something definitive to say about this rally’s causes and consequences. Until then, we must settle for theories. In a baffling week, oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf, America blamed Iran, and US stocks rose. President Donald Trump threatened to slap sanctions on ...

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• 16 June

  PBOC’s ‘tremendous room’ to act in focus as economy slows

  

  Bloomberg The boast by People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang this month that he has “tremendous room” to adjust policy could soon be tested as the economy slows, throwing attention on the impact on the nation’s fragile currency and financial markets. Compared to European and Japanese peers, China does have more obvious policy space. Its benchmark one-year lending rate ...

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• 16 June

  BOK policy maker sees trade woe if Trump re-elected

  

  Bloomberg Trade-reliant Thailand better get used to worrying about the export outlook if President Donald Trump wins a second term, according to an official who helps to decide the country’s policy interest rate. “The US-China trade war has haunted us,” Somchai Jitsuchon, a member of the Bank of Thailand’s (BOK) monetary policy committee, said in an interview. “And that may ...

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• 16 June

  JGB bulls look to Kuroda to keep rally going as Japan inflation wanes

  

  Bloomberg Japanese inflation data looks set to push bond yields even lower and increase scrutiny of central bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who says he can deliver more big monetary stimulus if necessary. Yields on Japanese government bonds have fallen since mid-April, with returns on 10-year debt touching a near three-year low of minus 0.135 percent on June 7. While these ...

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• 16 June

  Swiss govt opposes new SNB investment curbs

  

  Bloomberg Switzerland’s government opposes a measure that would forbid the central bank, pension funds and foundations from investing in munitions-makers, saying it wouldn’t be effective. The pending popular initiative would make it impossible for the Swiss National Bank from investing in a market-neutral way and would also create a precedent for other restrictions the government said in a statement. The ...

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• 16 June

  Russia returns to monetary easing, signals two more rate cuts this year

  

  Bloomberg Russia’s central bank shifted solidly to monetary easing, saying first interest rate cut in more than a year could be followed by two more in 2019, as inflation slows and growth sputters. The move makes Russia the latest emerging market to shift towards more dovish policy as escalating trade woes weigh on growth. The change in trajectory of interest ...

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• 16 June

  ‘Trade worries not a drag on business investment’

  

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs economists are skeptical that trade policy uncertainty is a major drag on business investment at the moment. Instead, they’re pointing to other economic indicators, which they say are still okay. “The link between economic policy uncertainty and capex weakens sharply when taking into account financial conditions and company investment spending expectations, which both still signal a decent ...

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